The 'scenic route' to mortgage freedom...

PiggyBankShaker

Just popping in for an accountability check. Nothing new to report, well nothing tangible anyway. The CB hit today so there's currently £250 in the joint account and as of yesterday DH has £433 in his. This needs to last to the end of the month and cover food, diesel, horseriding, drum lessons and new jumpers and trousers for DD, which should be doable as there is plenty of food in the house at the moment. I get paid from my 2nd job on Saturday and I'm hoping to be able to chuck most of it at the mortgage.

The first garden rooms company is coming today to look at the garden and give a formal quote, so that should be interesting.

DH and I chatted more about the kitchen yesterday and he mocked up a design on DIYKitchens planning tool. Think we have a layout nailed although it does mean loosing the dishwasher. We hardly use our current one, but I'm a tiny bit concerned about selling the house without one, its sort of expected these days, isn't it? The cabinets came in at circa £5,000 which is £6,000 less than Wren quoted us for cabinets. We'd have to buy the appliances separately and we could either get the worktop from them (another circa £1500 saving over Wren) or get a local firm to do it (which I haven't priced yet) One further idea I had was to drop the window cill of the window behind the sink and make it level with the worktop. I think the bigger window will look good, be more practical and let more light in, but the headache of getting people to come to the house and do jobs has left be feeling a bit overwhelmed by it. So we'll see.

In theory the builder could have started on the attic conversion yesterday, but we just couldn't get the price to anything near reasonable so that's officially on the back burner for now, or until material prices come down.

And because I feel I should keep a record somewhere, here it is --> still nothing from the architect. Will be interesting to see how long he leaves it before getting in touch. It's 12 working days so far and he 'promised' to get us a schedule on the week commencing the 20th Dec. Every day that goes by with nothing from him just convinces me that Option 1 is the better plan for us.

Stay safe! And keep hustling! 

themadvix

I don’t know about expected, but I’m afraid no space for a dishwasher is a deal breaker for me, sorry!

 Though it may be hassle, dropping the windowsill sounds like it would make the room lighter and more pleasant when you’re washing up  (which clearly you do as you don’t use the dishwasher!). Understand where you’re coming from about hassle though, given your recent frustrations.

Fortune_Smiles

Sounds as though you've found your solution PBS.  Although, I think at least space for a dishwaher is a 'must have' for most people these days.  Especially in a family home.

Fortune x

savingholmes

I would prioritise a dishwasher and declutter a cupboard accordingly...

South_coast

If you don't want a dishwasher then don't have one - this whole exercise is about making it your kitchen, not potentially selling the house somewhere further down the line! If you're really worried about it then you can have a kitchen design which includes a removable cupboard so that a future buyer can have a dishwasher if they please

PiggyBankShaker

Quick hello - nothing to report on the money front.

Off to Wren today to do a virtual reality walk through of the kitchen. Should be interesting and help steer us towards a decision.

The first of the garden office people came yesterday to give a formal quote - they were fine but I didn't really 'gel' with them and the whole thing left me a but 'meh' rather than excited, so I'm not sure what that is all about. Maybe I'm so jaded by the house extension experience, that I can't summon up any enthusiasm and I expect to be disappointed? Or maybe there's something else going on that my subconscious is trying to tell me about?

Also a company that I rang about to enquire about the new kitchen window quoted £4,000 :O Shocked is an understatement. I'll try some other comapanies and see what they say.

I've been scouring RightMove and there's just nothing out there that ticks all our boxes in terms of a wish list, and the ones I think are 'alright' are way above our budget. Part of me thinks we should just sack off home improvements altogether and save up for the dream house instead so we can press 'go' if it ever comes along.

Stay safe everyone.

PiggyBankShaker

Worked my 2nd job today and I'm quite tired now. Successfully queried my pay from back in November which had been £56 less than I was expecting. They agreed that I was paid incorrectly and they'll add it to my pay in March. Got paid by my 2nd job today (one day early) and made a £250 mortgage overpayment and sent £150 to savings.

Nothing else to report. Going to have a quiet night.

Hope everyone is well and staying safe.

savingholmes

Well done on the payments. 

With window companies stick to your instincts. We were initially quoted £12K earlier this year and I haggled them down to £6K and then still refused to go ahead. I was fizzing mad... Sometimes local builders are more cost effective than the so called specialists.

PiggyBankShaker

Quick check in. DH took a box to the charity shop that's been in the boot of the car for months! I'm counting this as a big win.

He did a bit of shopping, mainly groceries and household stuff and also bought some logs for the woodburner as our supplies are getting low.

His regular saver and the council tax go out tomorrow and when they do we'll have £320 to last the 2nd half of the month. £88 of that is earmarked for horseriding, £24 for roller derby and I still need to by new trousers and jumpers for DD. So its more like £208 left for food and diesel until the end of the month.

DH should find out tomorrow how much bonus he'll be getting for 2021, which is exciting as he's never worked anywhere with a bonus before. 

I'm just having a quiet day today, pottering around doing cleaning and tidying. I might try and scrap some paint off the back of the front door if I can be bothered, but its cold out in the porch so I might not. 

Hope everyone is safe and well and the pennies are rolling in the right direction!

themadvix

Box to charity shop is a definite win! 😁

🤞 the bonus is good - definitely exciting if it’s a new experience! 😊